The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 40, January 1901)

by Pennsylvania Prison Society

New Series Number 40
THE JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY
PUBLISHED ANNUALLY
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.”
INSTITUTED MAY 8th, 1787.

JANUARY, 1901.

OFFICE: STATE HOUSE ROW
S. W. Corner Fifth and Chestnut Streets
PHILADELPHIA, PA.

CONSTITUTION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SOCIETY.

When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded on the precept and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures, and when we reflect upon the miseries, which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the link which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degree and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested as may, instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth and obligations of these principles, the subscribers have associated themselves under the title of “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.”

For effecting these purposes they have adopted the following Constitution:

ARTICLE I.

The officers of the Society shall consist of a President, two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, who may be an undoubted first-class Trust and Safe Deposit Company, regularly chartered by the State or national authorities; two Counsellors, and an Acting Committee; all of whom shall first be nominated as suitable by the “Committee on Membership in the Acting Committee,” a standing committee of that body. They shall be chosen by ballot at the annual meeting of the Society to be held on the fourth Thursday in the First month (January) of each year, and shall continue in office until their successors are elected.